February 03, 2015

'Medical Marijuana without the High'? Washington Post Gets It

It’s the kind of feature article one is unlikely to read, see or hear in many major news outlets, but The Washington Post gave the top half of its first “The World” section page on Feb. 2, 2015 to “Medical marijuana without the high; Israel is at forefront of research, but export of plant doesn’t appear to be on the horizon”. And The Post was two years behind The New York Times, which ran a major feature on the topic, "Safed Journal: Studying Marijuana and Its Loftier Purpose," by Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner, on Jan. 1, 2013.

A four-column by five-inch Reuters color photograph, with the cutline “A worker tends to cannabis plants at a plantation where researchers say they have developed a marijuana that will not get patients high” illustrates this latest coverage by The Washington Post, correspondent Anne-Marie O’Connor's 1,120-word report. It told readers that “in a greenhouse in the mountains of the Galilee, a technician in a lab coat is coddling a marijuana seedling that is coveted for life-saving medical benefits for epileptic children, doctors say—without the high.

“Named ‘Rafael,’ for a healing angel called upon by Moses, this varietal of cannabis is for people who don’t want to be under the influence, and it is available in oral doses in Israel.”

The Jewish state, The Post adds, “has become a world leader in science on the medical uses of marijuana”—including treatment of Crohn’s disease, basal cell carcinoma, Parkinson’s and other illness. One of Canada’s leading producers of medical marijuana, “MedReleaf, is tapping Israel’s expertise in a 2014 partnership it signed in May 2014 with Tikun Olam, whose name means ‘Healing the World’ in Hebrew.”

But, according to the dispatch, the Israeli government has not yet allowed producers to export their products, only their expertise. While agricultural officials are said to favor product exports, their security counterparts do not. Nevertheless, “Israel’s medical cannabis research and development is drawing global interest, including an Australian firm and a leading American researcher.

A newsworthy Israeli story that had nothing to do with the Palestinian Arabs, and both The New York Times, frequently criticized by CAMERA for a chronic anti-Israel tilt in coverage and commentary, and The Washington Post,, itself sometimes prone to filter news through "the Palestinian narrative," recognized and played it prominently.

Correction: An earlier version of this SNAPSHOT said The Post's medical marijuana report was the kind of Israel-related coverage readers were not likely to see in The New York Times, among other media. The Times covered the story on Jan. 1, 2013. We regret the error.

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